Command-line tools for monitoring system access
Keeping Watch
© Lead Image © daniilantiq, 123RF.com
Linux tracks all the actions that take place on your system, including when your users were active and what they did.
Linux lets multiple users work in parallel. With multiple users on the system, the system administrator needs a means for monitoring user activity to watch for unusual behavior and to keep tabs on how the system is being used.
In this article, I describe some simple command-line tools that help the admin quickly identify strange behavior and ensure a stable operations.
Users on Your System
The /etc/passwd file contains user account settings (Listing 1). The lines start with the login name, followed by the user and group IDs, the user's real name, the user's home directory, and the program that automatically launches after successful authentication (typically the /bin/sh or the /bin/bash login shell.
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